So, I was reading the New York Post yesterday, and I read a pleasant little opinion piece on why GWB should instate a draft to go to war with Iraq and for “homeland security.” I blinked when I saw it, and had to glance at it a second time just to make sure I was reading it correctly. I was. Then, I wasted most of the rest of my break at work trying to figure it out. I love it when guys who are far, FAR removed from ever being drafted, and just young enough (by the look of his picture) to have missed out on the Vietnam draft, tell us all how he feels about a draft. Anyway, I forgot the e-mail address and the article isn’t on NY Post’s website. I have a crazy idea… why don’t we use the RESERVES! You know, the people who used the government for college money? Remember those guys and girls? Bah.
Also, from a reader last week in response to my question about Chris Jericho/Rikishi
First of all, I do agree with your point and see whre your coming from. But I want to show you that this is NOTHING new from the WWF. In fact, let’s look at Ric Flair’s only WWF run. When he came in, he was new to WWF fans and the WWF wanted to build him up as THE man. Now to give him a rub, they had him work a small program with Roddy Piper, who was probably at the same point on the totem poll as Rikishi is now, a credible upper mid-carder. Nevertheless, when these two fought at house shows, Ric Flair needed the ropes to pin Piper.
This is true. I don’t know who the guy is, because he didn’t send a name… but I think he’s a Packer’s fan.
Update on my current hunt for a WWF job. Submitted my resume and cover letter over hotjobs.com today (Sunday). Let’s see if I hear back ever. And actually, if you read this earlier, you saw my cover letter because I screwed up.
Did anyone else get annoyed that the WWF announced all the entrants to the Rumble? Talk about taking surprise out of it.
Raw
I didn’t watch Raw this week, as I only set up the VCR to tape afternoon stuff, and never quite made it back to my room before midnight. So, I’ll be recapping a recap.
Apparently, they sowed the seeds of a future Flair/Jericho feud. Ric and Chris got in a little mic spat that eventually came to blows, until Vince interrupted with a lead pipe shot to Flair’s head. A Flair/Jericho feud could be interested, with Flair sending a bunch of people to try and take Jericho’s title, until the culmination of the feud is Flair himself trying to take Jericho’s title.
The strange push of Lenny and Lo… er, I mean Billy and Chuck continued as they were put over the Hurricane and Tajiri. Makes perfect sense to me. Take a team NO ONE cares about and put them over a team created of two guys people want to cheer. All they have to do is some sort of a SEMBLANCE of a push with Hurricane, and he gets over. Yeah, it’s a jokey gimmick, but it’s their own damn fault. Of course, I think the WWF is afraid of letting a WCW guy actually, you know, GET OVER.
They had a “#1 scariest woman in the promotion match.” It could have been a Number One Contender’s match, too… but I think mine makes more sense. Anyone who has a face that doesn’t only break the mirror, but melts the wood AND screws the mirror is mounted on, wins the match easy. Jazz won… if you can imagine.
The breakup of Steph and H has started. At least the writing staff isn’t just conveniently forgetting the fact they’re married, which they would do anywhere else. I guess cuz Steph’s on the writing staff and she wants the mug time. Now, does the breakup continue or does H follow the normal H thing, and become a heel after a couple of weeks? If they’re planning to have him face Jericho at Mania, he stays face… if he faces Rock, it’s a heel turn. If Hogan enters the federation, it doesn’t matter, because Jericho won’t be champion anymore.
RVD has been permanently shoved back into midcard hell, as he teamed with Edge to face Regal and Test. Makes sense, I guess. RVD was getting far too popular. Better let him sit back in the stack of midcarders and make the crowd forget about him. Wouldn’t want someone else getting popular at the expense of the more established stars. ESPECIALLY not after a really good match with the Undertaker. Whatever
They did the normal “we’re right before the Rumble” schmozz finish at the end of the night that involved the only three people who may win the Rumble. H, Austin, and Undertaker. Actually, I take that back. It’s either H or Austin.
Smackdown!
RVD heads into LOWER midcard hell by jobbing out to Regal. That isn’t exactly a fair estimation now that I think about it. They’re trying to put Regal over as a super-annoying heel who beats everyone with Brass Knuckles. RVD is the safest guy to do it to, because he’s not going to lose much heat… because he’s RVf’nD. That, and if you heard the boos after he pinned RVD, it definitely worked.
H, Austin, Angle, and the Undertaker all went to tell Rock that they will be winnign the Rumble and, after he beats Jericho, they’ll see him at Wrestlemania.
Jazz slammed Trish’s hand into a trunk. It looked like it hurt.
DDP got his job back by beating the Big Bossman. You’d think, if they really didn’t want him back, they’d put him up against someone who didn’t suck. Let’s see what they do to Page’s career now. Maybe they’ll put him Raccoon ears and a tail and call him Super Mario Page. Or maybe they can put him in a suit and give him a laptop to hit people over the head with and call him “Crazy Out of Work Dot-Com Guy.” Those would be WINNERS!!!!
Rock came out to the ring to deliver a great pre-Rumble promo where he got off the line of the night: “I even got a call from that SSSSSSSSSSSSSICK freak Golddust, and even HE thinks he’s going to win the Rumble.” It also involved him taking the camera and panning around the audience himself. Jericho came out for rebuttal, and this turned into probably the best piece of Rumble hype over the last month. I think, with everything they’ve been doing over this past week, they CAN’T have Jericho lose. Everyone is looking past Jericho to the Rock, and if anyone is to take Jericho seriously, he has to come up with the upset here. Considering the Rock is possibly the only person in the federation who would be willing to let Jericho beat him clean, I think there’s a good chance. Keep in mind, I’m writing this part 5 hours before the Rumble itself.
Test got new music. That means he can be stuck on the midcard and doing nothing, but have some nifty music to come out to. Or something.
Austin and H teamed up to fight Angle and Booker T, presumably forgetting about that whole H orchestrating to KILL Austin thing.
Royal Rumble
I guess the WWF has finally decided it’s time to push Tazz. Team Five-Four got the big victory over the Dudz. This surprised me, but I guess they’re trying to revitalize the division. Anything they want to try, I guess.
Regal also got the big win over Edge. Afterward, he cut a promo talking about his “gift” fists. It was quite hilarious.
Jericho actually RETAINED the title in a really good match with the Rock. There was some intra-match craziness with Lance Storm and Christian, but it was not directly involved in the finish of the match. It took Jericho’s legs on the ropes, but he got a relatively clean win over the Rock. Very good. The question is: will ‘Mania be H/Jericho, or will H not wait till ‘Mania and beat Jericho at No Way Out. That way, they can build to something in some other feud.
The Rumble itself was quite boring. The WWF has this thing over the last few years where the Rumble has WAY too much downtime, where they let one of the “big” stars come in and elminate the entire gathering of people, and then they sit in the ring. They did it last year, and they did it this year, too. This year’s Rumble could have been completely avoided and just made an Austin/HHH main event, because that’s basically what it was. I miss the Rumble’s that had pretty much constant action. Of course, it’s almost gotten to the point where it’s almost useless to have a Rumble. The winner’s can usually be predicted with Relative Ease.
The Week In Wrestling
Not much to say this week, honestly. The entire week was throw-away Rumble hype. The only thing that annoyed me was the complete memory block of the entire Hardy Boy breakup. The three of them were working together to throw out the Undertaker, with no mention of Matt dumping Lita or turning on Jeff. In fact, Matt and Lita gave each other a little kiss before going in. In a crazy turn of events, Maven elimated the Undertaker… of course, then the Taker had to pull a Hogan and eliminate Maven after he was already out. So, actually, there SHOULD be a Maven/HHH match to see the true winner, because Maven never got elminated. Also, it was pretty cool to see Goldust and Mr Perfect again. It would be nice if they brought him back on a full-time basis.
Where Do They Go From Here?
I don’t know. I’d still do what I said last week. Tomorrow has no excuse not to be interesting… but we’ll see.
End Transmission
