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2014 Scott Sez: WWF RAW 03.26.01

The SK RAW Rant for March 26, 2001

surreal adj

1: characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions; "a great concourse of phantasmagoric shadows"- J.C.Powys; "the incongruous imagery in surreal art and literature"; " [syn: phantasmagoric, phantasmagorical, surrealistic]

2: resembling a dream; "night invested the lake with a dreamlike quality"; "as irrational and surreal as a dream" [syn: dreamlike]

3: vince mcmahon on wcw nitro

- Live from the Twilight Zone, Ohio.

- Your hosts are Jim “Rod Serling” Ross and Paul Heyman (Niceshot)  (Well that’s a tad dated now. )

- Am I stoked for tonight? Does a pope shit in the woods? All that stuff about the WWF’s overall staleness? Forget it, THE SHIT IS ON.  (Yeah, for now.  Wait until they fuck it up and then I have to do a million blog threads about it.) 

- We open with Vince gloating about (what else) buying WCW. And there’s a split screen, Nitro and RAW. HOLY SHIT, 2 minutes in and I’m marking out already. He begins by sealing Jeff Jarrett’s fate, declaring him “G-double-O-double-N-double-E” Well, I’m not sure what goonnee is, but it sure SOUNDS bad.  (13 years in and he’s STILL holding that grudge.) 

- Opening interview: Kurt Angle spills the Big News: He doesn’t have an opponent for Wrestlemania! That truly IS the biggest story of the year. Even worse, the Gobbledygooker has an opponent. Benoit (drawing a noticeable pop) comes out to remedy that, because he’s annoyed with Angle and just generally thinks he’s the better man with the better submission hold. (Man, you REALLY don’t want to get Benoit mad.)  See, now THAT’S good old fashioned match-making. I’m the better man, no I am, oh yeah, yeah, PROVE IT. Anyway, Angle says he’ll NEVER tap to the Crossface, so of course they hook it up and that’s exactly what happens. Edge & Christian charge the ring for the save and punk out Benoit, thus completing the babyface turn for Benoit. Great opening segment.

- Meanwhile, Vince watches Totally Buffed on TV, while establishing that HHH isn’t here, or in wrestling speak, “He’s here”.  (And then Buff Bagwell ended up changing the course of history a few weeks later.) 

- Tazz v. Val Venis. This is a lumberjack match with the APA and RTC serving as lumberjacks. Val gets a spinebuster and RTC pounds Tazz, but he gets the Tazzmission on Venis. Steviekick sets up the Money Shot, which misses. Northern Lights suplex finishes for Tazz. Lasted maybe 30 seconds. DUD Just WM hype.

- Meanwhile, Vince and William Regal mock Animal. (And then gave him a job and the tag titles four years later.) 

- Doink the Clown cavorts in the audience to hype the Gimmick Battle Royale. And dear god, is that Mike Kirscher in the upper corner of that graphic? Did his welfare benefits run out already?  (Let’s not mock the dead.  Oh, wait, it turned out he was alive, right?  Fuck him then.  YOU SUCK, KIRSCHNER!) 

- William Regal, with an announcement relating to W.C….Fields, wants a warmup match, So he calls out the Holly family, and gets Crash and Molly. Crash assumes he’s the one, but Regal goes after Molly…

- William Regal v. Molly Holly. Goes about 2 seconds before Doink the Clown reappears to make the save, and is revealed as Chris Jericho. Moving right along…

- Meanwhile, Vince notices Dustin Rhodes on Nitro and relates the story about his aborted try at breast implants to Trish, then realizes who he’s talking to and sheepishly moves on. I can’t even believe I’m typing some of this stuff. This one segment just violated about four layers of kayfabe in one shot.  (And then Goldust got another job a year later and then again today.) 

- Meanwhile, Team E/C/K (Edge / Christian / Kurt) welcomes Rhyno to the fold. So it’s Team R/E/C/K now, I guess?  (Yup.) 

- Wrestlemania promo, thus once again wedging “My Way” in my head. Then we head back to Smackdown for the Most Boring Interview Ever with Rock & Austin.

- And now, History. With a capital “H”. Vince, simulcast on TNT, comes out to gloat about the purchase of WCW. Paul Heyman, ever the good employee, compares Vince to Alexander the Great. Ye gods. Vince brags about how Time-Warner was literally begging him to take the troubled promotion off their hands, and in fact he’s more than happy to do so…provided Ted Turner comes to Wrestlemania to personally hand him the contract to sign. No bitterness there. He also takes full credit for winning the war, of course, although he admits that the wrestlers may have had a small part in it. He segues to Shane and hyping the big match, then goes back to WCW, specifically his options for the company. He can bury them and put it on the backburner, or he could rebuild it. So then this segment goes completely beyond the pale as Vince starts gauging fan reaction to some of the top WCW “stars”. Hulk Hogan gets a tepid reaction. (Back within a year and World champion again.)  Lex Luger is soundly rejected. (Never brought back again.)  Buff Bagwell gets a pop so shockingly big from the teeny-bopper set that it may have saved his job. (Which it did.)  Booker T gets a good face pop. (Hall of Famer!) Scott Steiner gets MAD pops, and again that may save his job. (Sure, until he botched it himself a year later.)  Then, in the most amazing moment I’ve seen in months, the crowd, with no prompting or cue, starts LOUDLY chanting for Goldberg. (Ryback must have been there.)  So Vince adds Sting to the list (BIG pop), and Goldberg, whose name alone nearly brings the house down. Okay, they’ve GOTTA get him now. (Sure, two years later after he didn’t really mean anything.)  In the end, Vince decides that WCW isn’t worth it, and he’ll just line them all up and hit ‘em with a good old “You’re FIIRRRRRREEED” for fun. Oh, and WCW is dead and buried, thank you and good night. BUT WAIT. Shane joins us…from NITRO?!? Oh my lord. Shane reveals that HE is in fact the new owner of WCW, having signed that contract himself earlier in the day, and Vince can essentially go to hell because he’ll bring WCW back up himself. Oh my lord. If they don’t fuck this up, and I don’t see why they would, this is gonna be the BIGGEST money-drawing angle in history, I swear to god.  (Oh, 2001 Scott, so naive to the ways of the world…) 

- Meanwhile, Vince yells at his lawyer. Smart man.

- Is there even any point in finishing the show after that segment?

- The Hardy Boyz & Chris Benoit v. Team E/C/K. Big brawl to start, Matt & Edge go in the ring. Hardyz work Edge over and a double-suplex gets two. Jeff heads to the floor the hard way and gets punked out. Angle stomps a mudhole and gets a backdrop suplex. Benoit gets the hot tag (at 1:00?) and cleans house, but Angle cheapshots him. Angle takes Poetry in Motion, however, and Benoit hits the Crossface. Edge & Christian save, but Christian takes the move and taps. Rhyno comes in and destroys both Matt and Lita. As long as he doesn’t wrestle, he might get over. Match was too short to be anything. ½*  (Rhyno did OK for himself, all things considered.) 

- Test v. X-Pac. Welcome to the long dark tea-time of the soul. Special ref: Eddy Guerrero. We actually just saw this exact thing last month, except with Jericho reffing between X-Pac and Eddy, but it’s the hard sell for Wrestlemania, so what can ya do? Test gets a tilt-a-whirl slam, but Eddy won’t count. Test crotches himself, and gets kicked in the head. Lightning legdrop gets one. Test’s press-slam attempt is stopped by Eddy, and X-Pac falls on him for two. X-Pac’s leg lariat gets two. He hits the kick combo in the corner, but Test catches him going for the broncobuster and slams him. Eddy won’t count. X-Pac grabs the belt and goes up, but gets nailed and Melted-down on the way down. A second ref comes in, but Eddy gives him what-for. Albert sneaks in, Baldobombs Test, and X-Pac gets the win. These guys were just sleepwalking through, and the severe overbooking didn’t help. ¼*

- MICK’S BACK! He shills a new book (“Foley is Good”), hits the cheap pop, and invites himself to Wrestlemania. Vince comes out, understandly vexed about that, but then the continuity-o-meter goes through the roof as we hit a tape from Dec. 2000, with Mick (one day before getting fired as commish) signs a gigantic stack of papers with Linda, in one of the coolest deus ex machina devices I’ve seen in a long time. He reveals the first document signed: A contract giving him the right to referee any match he wants at Wrestlemania. So of course he picks the Family Feud match, and basically notes that Vince’s life is gonna get a whole lot more difficult now. As if his night wasn’t bad enough already…

- Chris Jericho v. Big Show. This is Jericho’s punishment for the Doink thing. Jericho dives onto him but gets posted. Into the ring, Show walks on him and misses a pump splash. Bulldog is deflected by Show, but Jericho escapes the Final Cut. Both guys hit the floor, but Show presses him back in. Kane comes out to brawl, as do Raven and Regal. Regal hits the neckbreaker on Jericho to break up a pin attempt after the Lionsault on Show, and Show gets AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH THE CHOKESLAM!, for the pin. Would it have KILLED them to job Big Show here? DUD Needless overbooked.

- The Rock & Steve Austin v. Undertaker & Kane. Kane hammers Rock, but gets forearmed. Kane kills him with a lariat. Big foot and Kane chokes him out. Taker pounds him in the corner, as the crowd seems pretty subdued. Rock fights back, but UT gets the flying clothesline for two. Kane comes in again, but walks into a spinebuster and Rock gets the hot tag to Austin. He cleans house but gets dropped by Taker. Kane & Rock fight outside as Austin hits the Thesz Press on Taker. He gets nailed again, but fights out of the tombstone. UT shoves him into Rock, however, and chokeslams him. HHH runs in, chairshots UT, and Austin gets the pin. That ending’s really stupid on a lot of levels, like “Why do Austin & Rock need HHH’s help to beat UT & Kane” and “Who really cares who wins this match anyway, so why is UT so pissed off” and so on. Match was real bad with no heat, too, thus ending our streak of super hot main events. ½* Austin drinks some (de-alcoholized) beer, but Rock sneaks up and goes KICK WHAM STUNNER on Austin! (Oh yeah, I forgot about the “no booze allowed” era for Austin after the unpleasantness with Debra.)  Wow, pretty soon this guy will have stolen EVERY finisher in the WWF. Seems pretty heelish to me.

The Bottom Line: It’s really too bad this was a Wrestlemania hype show, because had it occurred AFTER the big show and we had been treated to, say, a single decent match, it could easily be the most awesome RAW ever thanks to the Vince segment. However, it didn’t, so it’s not, and more’s the shame.

At any rate, Wrestlemania is now set, with 11 matches looking like this:

- Rock v. Austin for the WWF title

- TLC II: Dudleyz v. Hardyz v. Edge & Christian.

- Jericho v. Regal for the I-C title

- Test v. Guerrero for the Euro title.

- HHH v. Undertaker

- Benoit v. Angle

- Big Show v. Raven v. Kane for the Hardcore title

- Ivory v. Chyna for the Women’s title

- APA & Tazz v. RTC

- Vince v. Shane in a street fight

- The Gimmick Battle Royale.

If the four big workrate matches (Rock/Austin, TLC, Jericho/Regal and Benoit/Angle) are given 15 minutes or more each, they should all easily hit ****+ and elevate this show to Best PPV Ever without breaking a sweat. However, if they DON’T and they try to do a three-hour PPV with a one-hour post-game…it could get ugly. That’s why I declared last week that this show could go either way. Still, hope springs eternal.  (Wrestlemania ended up OK, I’d say.) 

As always, tune in the day after Wrestlemania for the PPV rant, and until next week, BUY THE BOOK.

Comments

  1. How do they book Benoit/Hardys vs. Team ECW and NOT give it like 20 minutes?


    The Nitro/Raw simulast was truly amazing at the time. Surreal really was the word for it. Even 13 later, I don't know exactly how they were going to ever live up to the hype and initial excitement, but it was great while it lasted.

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  2. For all the insanity that is Vincent K. McMahon this whole thing just seemed out of character for him. I forgot about his complete burial of everyone who crossed him. Not sure if he was just playing up the Mr. McMahon thing or he had been waiting 10 years to get all of that off of his chest.

    On a personal note this was more depressing than it should have been cause it signaled the end of childhood. One of the main constants in my life will no longer be around and you start realizing that's just how shit works.

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  3. Anyone else having trouble on PS3 with the live stream skipping? Every few minutes or so the stream skips back like 2 or 3 seconds and it's annoying as hell.

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  4. I thought I read that Jarrett and Vince reconciled when Vince called him after his wife died. I'm not saying we'll see ol' Double J on Raw anytime soon, but that feud seems to be over.

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  5. Austin wasn't allowed to drink booze? I feel like I remember this but don't quite remember why

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  6. Just think of how good the purchase of WCW could've been....

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  7. To your first: All of the above, I'd think.


    To your second: It wasn't until after the InVasion was over that I "lost my childhood".

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  8. "Oh my lord. If they don’t fuck this up, and I don’t see why they would, this is gonna be the BIGGEST money-drawing angle in history, I swear to god".

    Thank you, Scott. I needed that laugh!

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  9. I'd have to assume it was related to domestic violence... although I don't remember it extending this far back.

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  10. It does that every once in a while on the PS4 for me, but not often enough to get annoying.

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  11. I wasn't following wrestling on the Internet yet, so Raw opened & I had no idea WHAT the fuck was going on. Years later, after the Invasion played out, I think what I remember most fondly from this episode was Jericho dressing up as Doink.

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  12. Austin wasn't allowed to drink beer after the Debra incident in 2002. In 2001, he was allowed to drink booze

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  13. I lost "my childhood" in the back of a Chevy

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  14. The Invasion PPV is one of the highest grossing non Wrestlemania PPV's ever so there is that...

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  15. First time you had access to some Busch Lite?

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  16. Vince, you've just took over your biggest rival and now own a virtual monopoly. What are your thoughts on that?

    "Fuck Jeff Jarrett!"

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  17. I was doing keg stands while most were still beast feeding

    #LiveTheGimmick

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  18. I'm going to authorize that someone create a video package to recap the feud you guys have engaged in. With BoD WM around the corner and all.

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  19. The whole InVasion was the beginning of the "McMahon's a millionaire who should be a billionaire" phase.

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  20. Beast feeding? How dare you insult my mother. I think I'll have to be at ringside for your match now...

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  21. Your the guy who cant watch his matches cause he sickens you huh

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  22. Stranger in the AlpsMarch 29, 2014 at 10:34 AM

    Yep. I was on my laptop last night watching Wrestlemania 2, and it was skipping forward a few seconds.

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  23. Taker has always been a guy who can have great matches if he was with the right guy. Put him with HBK no matter what era and he would have a great match with HBK. Same with Bret, Edge, Angle (post 2000 when Angle hadn't become the stellar worker he would become in 2001), Benoit etc.

    Outside of his WM match with Batista in 2007, I really can't think of a really great singles match featuring the Undertaker where he was facing a guy who wasn't amazing in the ring.

    I will agree that Taker in 2000/2001 was at his worst as a worker.

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  24. I'm not the only one.

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  25. Absolutely. Triple H basically destroying him @ WM27 would have been the perfect start to a more vulnerable phase of his career, and he could be using his "powers" as a crutch to get around his advancing age.

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  26. The Royal Rumble 94 crowd should be given medals.

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  27. Can it be set to "Drug Ballad" by Eminem?

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  28. Based on the fact that" Hey man nice shot" song is played every 20 minutes in every bar in America to this day I fear that Heyman joke may never become dated.

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  29. Is it hard for you to watch old WWII footage as well when they show Hitler?

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  30. Every time I watch him in that era I want to go Mean Girls on JR and yell "STOP TRYING TO MAKE "BOOGER RED" HAPPEN"

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  31. I still can't believe that they made Jericho Doink. He deserved better.

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  32. You're right. Seeing hitler in old footage and chris Benoit in wrestling matches is the same exact thing. In fact, I should be able to watch hitler's speeches and enjoy his oratory skills without associating the holocaust with him.

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  33. What was the Doink thing that Jericho punished?

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  34. Holding him up for a ton of money to drop the title to Chyna.

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  35. You're fired, Shawn.

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  36. Oh yeah, that's right.

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  37. Steiner trying to jump off the apron on test and completely eating shit was the highlight of that ppv for me.

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  38. They live in Cleveland. (drops mic, walks off)

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  39. (Kayfabe, not real life. Those of you typing RL answers can have fun...)

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  40. Watched the Big Event this morning...crappy show, but man, that was a massive crowd, very impressive!

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  41. You can hate biker-taker all you want, but the Undertaker character was getting really out of place after the Ministry days ended. As the WWF segued out of the Attitude era, the focus was on more realistic people and less on gimmicks.

    I thought it was a welcome change, but I just wish his matches had been better on the whole. I will say though, that his match with Flair was pretty good. I remember the bar I was in popped HUGE when AA hit the spinebuster.

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  42. But the story of his interaction with a drugged up Michaels about Doink is gold.

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  43. And that is WITH shitty backwards booking and no wcw stars. Can you imagine the numbers if they did the invasion right!!??

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  44. They went to a few dry counties in 2001 and they couldn't do the legit beer thing.

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  45. Details please. Never heard it

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  46. I loved whatever PPV it was where Lawler asked JR what Booger Red meant like 8 times and JR ignored him or avoided the question every time.

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  47. It's weird that people were put off time to time by Taker never really selling because he was a zombie, but when he became a normal, living human biker, people went "uggggggh, uh, maybe do the zombie thing again."

    I was one of them. Biker Taker was absolute garbage. As goofy and aimless as his THE SOULS OF THE DAMNED WILL WELCOME YOU INTO THE DARKNESS promos are, his promos as Biker Taker were worse and his ringwork outside of a handful of matches was boring dogshit.

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  48. Chris Jericho: Hey Shawn. How's it going?

    Shawn Michaels: .......Chris?..........Is that you?

    Y2J: Yeah man it's me. How are ya?

    HBK:.........So you're Doink now?

    Y2J: Nah I'm just doing a run-in on Regal.

    HBK: Why did they make you Doink?

    Y2J: It's only for a run-in I'm doing. On Regal.

    HBK: They should never have made you Doink! That's baloney!

    Y2J: No no no no. It's only for TONIGHT. It's a RUN-IN.

    HBK: But you're Doink now?

    Y2J: IT'S JUST FOR A RUN-IN ON REGAL!

    HBK (wandering off): I can't believe they made you Doink.....

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  49. If they really wanted to make the Invasion and heel turn work, they should had Booker T and other WCW guys help Austin beat the Rock and at the end of the match, he puts on a WCW shirt.

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  50. They had *no* idea what they were going to do with WCW at that point, and Booker T wasn't even signed yet.

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  51. And also being terrible. I hope that's part of his beef, anyway.

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  52. He was high as fuck at that point; kinda hard for me to feel sorry for him.

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  53. At least we only had to live with one buff match in WCW.

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  54. Fair enough, though I wouldn't put the Rock on any list of wrestlers elevating work-rate much before that time either.

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  55. They gave us Diesel, but also Bret Hart on top... I'd call it a wash.

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  56. Just watched some of it, they don't promote WM like that anymore. Theme song blasting 50 times, everyone wearing a WM shirt, what happened?
    Cole should not have worn that WM shirt because that paired with his highlighted hair made him look a little be stoneish, or a sad looking college sophomore.

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  57. He still probably hundreds of millions off the deal. I remember hearing he made his money back off the WCW deal just on the first Flair DVD.

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  58. Loved the pop Goldberg got when Vince asked if they wanted him.

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  59. I can see that happening.

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  60. Vince will hold a grudge as long as he cant make any money off you.

    But when Vince buys TNA and they invade NXT....

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  61. I get that once in awhile.

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  62. Wasn't Austin outlawed from drinking from 2002-03, though? I remember him mentioning it in his book, and that was the reason why he did that big ass beer bash with Goldberg because it was the exact day the ban was lifted.

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  63. They had a packed show is I think the answer. If they had 3 hours of raw I don't think anyone would be complaining with this lineup. Every match would have been 2x as long and glorious.

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  64. No, I think Vince told you what he was going to do with them. He was going to bury them and back burner them. And for the chump change he bought it out for, it just might have been worth it for him to just have fun pissing all over his former competition. I might have done the same.

    Anyway, he did alright. Made money off the guys he wanted, long term, and the library has already returned his investment many times over. Worked out OK.

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  65. Jarrett was far from terrible.

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  66. Yeah, but it was also the same crowd who popped for Diesel in 2011, so ultimately they're left with no medals.

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  67. He used to rape girls. Hard for me to feel sorry for him.

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  68. WCW was ridiculously cheap. He made the money back 10 fold just off the library. What he should have done is bought out all the contracts and just considered that as "buying" WCW.

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  69. He's good in the ring but there is just something about his that just rubs people the wrong way. And not in a good heel type way.

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  70. So Chris Walken was on the Actor's Studio, many years ago. Right before James Lipton became popular. And Lipton's asking him his questions at the end and Walken looks bored (or pretends to.)

    Lipton asks him "You die and go to Heaven and meet God. What does he say to you?"

    Walken : "Well...you were right!"

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  71. I remember flipping back and forth between Nitro and Raw that night. Vince wasn't actually watching that week's Nitro, but a tape of a previous edition. If you caught that, it took you a little out of the moment, but that night was such a mindf*** that nothing was really going to derail things.
    To this day, the biggest crime was not buying out the contracts of all the WCW guys they just brought in within a year (Flair, Mysterio, Hall, Nash, Steiner) and having them invade too. I know we don't play the "rebook the Invasion" game here, but you can safely say that things would've been a lot different with at least some of those guys on board.

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  72. We need a thread about the best Raw/Nitros.

    The one after the Invasion where they reset everything and bring Flair in is tremoundous. Some really good ones in 97 also

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  73. If they'd gotten Goldberg or Hogan immediately, they would've done a colossal WrestleMania-level buyrate.

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  74. Seriously, he had the biggest money-drawing angle EVER right there on his lap but just used it as a six-month masturbatory victory lap instead.

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  75. I watched Wolf of Wall St again last night. There's that great scene (fuck, they were all great scenes) where the FBI visits Jordan on the boat. He eventually kicks them off the boat and starts throwing hundred dollar bills at them, while yelling "Here, here! This is 'fun' money!"

    Same thing.

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  76. It comes and goes but sometimes is too annoying. Like on Tuesday, it was fine for the Bret/Owen rewind but became almost unwatchable during the blunders countdown.

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  77. Due to budget concerns and maximizing shareholder value, they just POINT TO THE SIGN now.

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  78. "Jarrett was completely terrible"

    FTFY

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  79. I read Petrie's rants a lot and it was pretty crazy how frequently he was left saying "Best Raw ever!" after several shows in 1997. You had the second Raw Is War with the Bret Hart tirade, Austin beating Bret to holy hell after Revenge of the Taker, the show where HBK was announced as the special referee for Bret/Taker and Bret attacked Vince McMahon at the commentator's table for it, the MSG Raw...jeez, 1997 was awesome.

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  80. It is because it is easy to spot an obnoxious asshole when you see one. See also Status, Cult.


    #PostBoDManiaFeud

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  81. Think it was a Nash shoot where he said that HBK used to "h-bomb" girls, bang them while unconscious and then kick them out of the hotel room naked. That's rape, man.

    Or was it Jannety who said that? Whatever it was a story from one of them on a shoot video.

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  82. "It is because it is easy to spot an obnoxious asshole when you see one."

    You must get lots of practice by looking in the mirror every morning.

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  83. It actually seems recently that history hasn't been altered as much as it used to be to serve HHH. This year's commemorative WM30 magazine makes mention of how HHH has the most WM losses of all time by placing him atop a list. A WWE Network promo for Thy Kingdom Come prominently features Chyna, And now his shitty WM matches aren't being overrated on WWE.com lists.

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  84. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkmsQ-Zkh3w

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  85. I need to see that one again.

    It was on a tape with the 2001 survivor series I loaned to someone I worked with... Which I never got back because he was fired.

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  86. You put it that way, and it makes me think that if WCW cost a lot more than it ended up being, Vince probably would've gone all-out in producing a huge angle in order to make the profit.

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  87. Was disappointed it wasn't the SxE theme song

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  88. I think the original plan was WCW Saturday Nitro, which eventually became Velocity and WWE Confidental.

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  89. I think both of them have mentioned that... Marty definitely did on his Breaking Kayfabe.

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  90. I figure it depends on the figure. Its hard to say or speculate.

    But for the $2 million (or was it 4? Not much difference I figure) it might have been worth it to him.

    "Here, here! This is 'fun' money!"

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  91. He definitely he was a bigger deal than he actually was. He was the only guy to make multiple jumps during the Monday Night Wars, to diminishing returns each time.

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  92. I was giving you credit for such a SICK BURN


    That song will of course be my entrance music at BoD Mania where you will be... SAVED

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  93. They had the Outlaws in this year's jerseys... two weeks ago? last week?... but I doubt it even got more than a remark or two on here.

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  94. Yea, definitely not disputing that it's rape. Just never heard those stories.

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  95. A separate brand with its own tapings and 4-6 ppvs a year would have made money. But it would have always been "WWF lite" because Vince wouldn't allow it to be different.

    It's probably best it worked out this way.

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  96. Yeah that was until he realized just how much it would cost him to rehab the brand. Speculating, but he might have thought it just wasn't worth it and would be more fun to take the piss. He was going to fuck with them one way or another, think he just figured why not fuck them all the way? But who knows really.

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  97. Maybe the guy who posts the question of the day could ask that question.

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  98. For the record, I still kinda hate the Undertaker.

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  99. LOOKING at you Meekin. I could throw it up in a little

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  100. Was it Vince wouldn't allow it? Or was it the fans? I mean, let's be real here...even if it was a separate brand, it still would have had the McMahon brand on it, like ECW.

    No, kinda glad it worked out the way it did, but yeah it could have been more fun for fans.

    But OK...here's the thing...I was a huge Mike Awesome fan. And they tried to bring him in as a killer...and the fans didn't buy it. Whose fault was that? See Kanyon too.

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  101. It's hilarious because it's TRUE

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  102. You know who else can have a great match with HBK, Bret, Edge, or Angle? ANYONE. Give them 20-25 minutes and it will be ****. Let's not kid ourselves here, the Undertaker has these great matches because he's in there with great workers.

    The Batista one, that I can't explain other than I watch Luger and Spivey had a **** match, so anything is possible. But Undertaker's last regular series of matches with Kane was pretty terrible.

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  103. Oh sure, sorry wasn't trying to imply you would argue it was rape. Or maybe my "inflection" was off.

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  104. Taker/Brock in the Cell was pretty great.

    But otherwise, yeah those matches are pretty shitty. That's why I'm not really looking forward to their Mania match.

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  105. Why did they give away Brock vs Hogan with the Summerslam title shot in the balance on Smackdown? It would have been much more impactful at Vengeance than the lame duck Brock vs RVD IC title match where Brock couldn't lose and RVD couldn't drop the title guaranteeing a screwjob. Plus if Hogan won he could wrestle Rock, Austin or Undertaker three wrestlers he lost to that year and they could have teased Rock vs Hogan 2.

    Austin was right that they were throwing away money jobbing legends to Brock on random Raw and Smackdown episodes

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  106. While we're at it, his "feud" with DDP was so laughable it helped kill the Invasion.

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  107. Do I have everybody's attention now?

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  108. Am I the only one who likes "Rollin" and "My Way?" And I'm a guy who mostly listens to Dave Matthews.

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  109. If only there was a person who had posting privileges and has done QOTD in the past available...

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  110. Hanging that sign up at every show for five months is cheaper than screen printing t shirts?

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  111. Sure, they totally did.

    But as a fan, I'm glad they did. It was great seeing it for free and it was a fun match with a great end. Why would I lament that I didn't get to pay for it rather than get it for free?

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  112. He should go back to being a biker because Sons of Anarchy is awesome.

    In fact they should find SOMEONE to be a biker to piggy-back on that show's success, but probably since everyone is a model now they don't have anyone with the right look.

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  113. One that always had a soft spot for me was the night Al Snow came back from ECW (debut with Head) and Dustin burned the Golddust outfit. Same night. I can't remember anything else about the show, but I remember thinking it was the best show for years. Probably because it was one of the few times I got to watch a show together with an old friend of mine.

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  114. They had no idea what WCW fans wanted. They were going to book the first WCW shows in Canada instead of super hot territories like Georgia and the Carolinas.

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  115. I call these fun coupons!

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  116. Seriously, what is it about that song that people are so unwilling to give up? It's nineteen years old already, let it go.

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  117. He didn't "hold Vince up", he wanted the money owed to him before he left for WCW in exchange for working without a contract for the past month as a show of faith. You can call Jarrett an ass for a lot of things, but this was not one of them.

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  118. Or he could be a wily old Clint-type cowboy who's also dead - ala Pale Rider.

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  119. What am I, a supply chain manager?

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  120. Didn't they try that with Chuck Palumbo for a little while?

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  121. With that attitude you never will be!

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  122. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryMarch 29, 2014 at 12:34 PM

    Taker is kind of like Jeff Gordon, used to hate his guts but now have a grudging respect for him. Being from Brazil you probably have no idea who Jeff Gordon is... Then again, you guys down there love racing, so maybe you do.

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  123. Harlan Leverage IIIMarch 29, 2014 at 12:36 PM

    My mom's from Wisconsin; I was doing keg stands WHILE I was breast feeding.

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  124. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryMarch 29, 2014 at 12:38 PM

    For the record, so do I, and there and no "kinda" about it. Even if I liked his in-ring work the whole "locker room leader" horseshit is reason enough for why I can't stand him.

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  125. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryMarch 29, 2014 at 12:41 PM

    Yes. Dave Matthews sucks too. Go buy a Who CD or something.

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  126. Awwwww realized you couldn't get over on the first take so you had to go back and edit. How cute.

    #sXeMeansImBetterThanYou

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  127. HowmuchdoesthisguyweighMarch 29, 2014 at 12:44 PM

    Totally agree. Loved his "last of the old west" type character. I wonder if Paul bearer didn't die, his build vs punk would of been different also.

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  128. Bischoff would have been huge at the time too.

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  129. Just watched Shield VS Wyatts from Elimination Chamber (just added this week); wow, lived up to the hype. Hope we get another rematch now that the Shield break-up seems to be postponed.

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  130. My Way is AWESOME for the WM17 video package for Rock/Austin. As a stand alone song, not so much.

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  131. I think so. Have Punk tout his "longest reigning champ of the last decade" "Best in the World" against the streak. Also, a longer build would've been great, as well as Punk getting there more organically, rather than just winning a random 4 way on RAW.

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  132. Worst_in_the_WorldMarch 29, 2014 at 1:27 PM

    Same here, without the kinda.

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  133. It's funny to think about, but if Undertaker had taken a random loss at Wrestlemania years ago and the Streak never becomes a thing, he probably retires in 2010 (maybe even earlier) and is in the Hall of Fame already.

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  134. Worst_in_the_WorldMarch 29, 2014 at 1:31 PM

    Will this be the year that fans turn on him again? The Brock build has been awful, and if the match itself sucks I could see the crowd dumping on it.

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  135. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryMarch 29, 2014 at 1:31 PM

    IMO, I think it was the match he had with Orton at WM21. That's a pretty overlooked match but he and Orton brought the goods on a goddamn stacked card and even in a loss, made Orton look like a legit future main eventer, something he didn't look like even when he was champion (that was more of a HHH + ill-advised face turn thing).

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  136. Am I the only one who thinks this Taker/Lesnar bout is going to be pretty awesome? I see this almost like a WM23 situation, where we're expecting the worst but it's going to be end up being a great power match. I have absolutely no worries that Taker will mesh well with Brock's hard-hitting style --- if we've learned anything about Undertaker, it's that he'll go totally all-out for his annual WM appearance.

    People seem to be using the HHH/Brock series as evidence that Lesnar can only work well with elite workers who will bump around for him, but I don't agree. I just see those matches as (further) evidence that Triple H sucks and has no idea how to pace or wrestle an "epic" match. Undertaker absolutely does.

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  137. Network Attempt Round 2:

    Since it didn't work on my original iPad I figured I'd give it another go on my new Xbox (I'm not a gamer so I have to apologize but have people always been paying Microsoft a fee to access other services like Netflix? Because that's freakin hilarious) I download the app aaaaaaaaannd nothing but last year's PPV's show up in the menus. Cool, I can watch Rock/Cena2 but no other Mania's at all. Same with No Way Out and the Rumbles. Is this some glitch on my part? As far as I can tell basically every single PPV in the menu is missing except the stuff from 12-13 and the IYH's.

    I'm going to take the whole thing back anyway since the idea of paying an extra $10 a month to Microsoft just for the...pleasure of using my own wi-fi I guess, is not something I'm willing to do. I just wanted people to know that apparently this thing doesn't work at all on the 360 either. Or maybe I'm just a moron and there's a special trick I don't know. I'm getting tired of sitting on hold with WWE though I just want this stupid thing to work.

    ReplyDelete
  138. I liked Bikertaker more than a lot of people but I think Dead Man Taker could have persisted through the Attitude Era. I think what really hurt him was a major change in look in late 98/early 99, the Satanic goatee didn't really work for him, and the tanktop attire didn't work for him either, and the Ministry of Darkness was pretty crap and hokey looking back on it.


    You could even incorporate Callaway's bike affinities into it, design a cool black, purple, and chrome Dead Man Bike that he could come out on, it would look amazing at stadium show WMs with the long ramp.

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  139. I don't remember which one... I think they had three on PPV around that time... but one of those matches was pretty damn good. Maybe more along the lines of surprisingly good.


    The other two were par for the course regarding Undertaker/Kane.

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  140. From JR himself...

    What's Booger Red? A nickname that I unsuccessfully hung on the American Bad Ass Character, as I recall, IE the Undertaker. Booger Red was the nickname of another red headed, bad ass from Texas, former UT linebacker and hall of famer Tommy Nobis. If you look up 'Booger' in the dictionary, it is a southern expression meaning a frightening apparition of which Undertaker certainly is. Plus, he is naturally red headed. I thought the name worked but others didn't.

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  141. From probably '99 - '03, I'll admit to Limp Bizkit being my favorite band.

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  142. It's because, he was the undefeatable zombie during his entrance only... but once the bell rang, he took a fighting stance, circled his opponent and became a worker.

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  143. The no holds barred match at Night of Champions might be the one your'e referring to. It wasn't horrible.

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  144. I honestly can't remember. I only remember Kane getting a pretty big pop for the tombstone and the win. I've always been a Kane mark, and it was nice with an actual title run and not to see him stink up the joint.

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  145. Gonna have to watch the 2014 Rumble again, knowing Daniel Bryan isn't going to come out and see if it makes it any better,

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  146. Apparently, yes, people pay $300 for an Xbox, then pay however much for X-Box live so they can THEN pay $7.99-$9.99 a month for Netflix, Hulu and WWE Network.


    Apps that just appear on my "too restrictive" Apple TV and I access for the $99 I paid for the box in 2011.

    ReplyDelete
  147. I was having a hell of time with my PS3 last night constantly stopping when I tried to watch some old WCW ppvs.


    Finally I just gave up and watched the live steram.

    ReplyDelete
  148. This just in... Nidia could get it from me.

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  149. I got a lot of enjoyment watching the crowd shit all over the ending.

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  150. UT is like Derek Jeter at this point. Great rep and viewed as an "establishment" or "icon". He's over for life

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  151. So I'm watching the Hogan/Brock Smackdown... and just when the show got into a nice groove, some drama breaks out with Dawn Marie, Stacy and Stephanie involving some paperwork (and the stupidity of Steph not watching the show she's on).... man, way to ruin a groove.

    ReplyDelete
  152. I just did some math... and if you spend $10/month for X-Box live watching the WWE Network on your X-Box for 10 months, you will have spent enough to buy an Apple TV, which is in fact awesome and doesn't charge you extra to pay to access other content.

    ReplyDelete
  153. Is anyone else surprised it took them 5 weeks to get to one of the documentaries that talk about how great HHH is?

    ReplyDelete
  154. ... or five months and get a Roku, which I used for years and absolutely loved.

    ReplyDelete

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