THE GREEN TEABAGGER

The Avatar of the Week

Hey, maybe you heard something about this in the news or more likely on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report because Jon Stewart and The Reverend Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A. are the most trusted newsmen in America.  I don't know if that's sad or awesome.  I'm going with awesome.  Anyway, there was a pretty big news event we heard this week.




Pretty much.  We got Bin Laden.  Best news ever.  So this week's Avatar of the Week goes to he who equals ratings, RDLee.





This Sunday Night, the World Wrestling Insanity e-fed is hosting its pay-per-view event (charge: your time and energy....trust me, it's a better deal than any TNA PPV this year and you won't want to demand your money back or have to buy a new television because you threw a brick at it) Ricochet taking place in San Antonio, Texas.

In a tag team contest, the team of Anarchy take on Wolfchild and Thorn Gabriel.  Anarchy are two masked wrestlers who, well, cause anarchy.  There are a few big stipulations.  If Anarchy wins, they get a guaranteed tag team title match and other perks.  If Wolfchild and Thorn Gabriel win, the masks come off of Anarchy.  The twist in this match is that Anarchy is actually Wolfchild's former tag team with QuadrupleTree.  This match is also for the rights to the Anarchy name.  Will we discover the identities of the new Anarchy, or will a new reign of terror and anarchy begin?

Two wrestlers who recently returned from injury will square off in the kind of match considered their specialty.  The Green Teabagger will take on Timpossible.  Timpossible, a former member of The Illuminati, is on a road for personal redemption in his eyes and the fans' eyes.  The Green Teabagger looks to continue on his road through WWI on his way to title shots, slapping people with fish, and entertaining the fans.

In what has quickly become one of the most violent, heated rivalries in WWI, two former World Champions square off as the leader of The Illuminati Victor Hamilton Pendragon squares off another former Illuminati member and former World Champion Hellsinger in a Torture Chamber match.  What is a Torture Chamber match?  Weapons.  Cage.  Blood.  Violence.  What else do you need?

A long-standing personal rivalry comes to a head as current Illuminati member 'The Epitome of Man' Mr. Aaron Firovanti goes one-on-one with 'The Almighty' Anthony Analog, who looks to continue to go through each member of The Illuminati one by one.

Two former best friends.  Two former tag team partners.  Former tag team champions.  Alexander Phoenix will face Mason Case in a Texas Death Match.  Mason Case left The Illuminati a few weeks ago after having enough of dealing with Victor Hamilton Pendragon.  Mason tried to convince Alexander to leave The Illuminati behind as well.  Then, in a match the following week between Case and Pendargon, Alexander Phoenix came to the ring and shocked the wrestling world by slamming Mason Case's head with a steel chair allowing Pendragon to pick up the win.  One of these two men will likely not walk away from this match, and neither man will ever be the same.  Case.  Phoenix.  Texas Death Match.

In a high stakes triple threat match, T-Dog vs. TMJ vs. Teru Mikami.  T-Dog and TMJ have taken their own rivalry to a whole new level in recent weeks while making their own claims to the World Heavyweight Championship.  All the while Teru Mikami may be the biggest dark horse in the match.  Who will come out on top?

The WWI World Tag Team Champions Nightmare will defend their tag team championships against The Merchants of Death.  The MOD finally got over the hump to earn a championship opportunity and now have to climb over a mountain to become champions for the first time.  Will The MOD make history or will Nightmare continue the bloodshed that has symbolized their time in WWI?

The WWI Utopian Title will be on the line in a 4-person Gauntlet Match.  In the first heat of the gauntlet, Tornado goes one-on-one with J.D. Mayfield.  The winner of that match will face off against Nasty Ned Chambers.  The winner of that match will square off against the reigning champion Exx.  The era of sickening violence has begun with Exx on top of Utopia with all his sickos behind him cheering like madmen.  Can Tornado, Mayfield, or Nasty Ned overcome the odds to become champion or will Exx continue to hold the Utopian Title?

Finally, in the main event.  The WWI World Heavyweight Champion Matt Dawgs, in his fourth reign, defends his newly won title against 'The White Knight' Markus Ramius who is looking to win the World Title for the first time.  Will the wily veteran, the four time champion, and arguably the most ruthless champion in WWI history continue to hold an iron grasp on the championship or will Markus Ramius make his dreams come true and become the World Champion for the first time?

All will be told this Sunday at Ricochet.          

THE GREAT WHITE DOPE

There is something magical about Total Nonstop Action. None of us quite know what that is though. Some people, including me, have turned to the theory that TNA is venturing into Rifftrax/The Room/Troll 2 territory purposefully. Others feel this is just a rough patch that will soon be out of. Others even, somehow, believe the company is just having the natural growing pains of a company that is about to turn it all around. But there is one thing these fans all have in common with each other and people who think TNA is the name of the new satellite $5.99 per month adult-channel that just launched on DirecTV: No one gets TNA's financials at all. How do they turn a profit? Do they turn a profit? Has Dixie Carter even seen what money looks like? Hogan cashed those checks yet?

Galaxy

More on TNA finances: They're apparently 6-8 months behind paying wrestlers for outside dates, months late paying talent in general, 12 weeks late people freelancers and such, and 6 month late paying vendors.

They're telling people this is because the head of accounting, the guy who signs the cheques, has cancer. Of course that makes no sense whatsoever because almost all companies have a back up plan in case someone can't fufil their duties.

This is some ECW levels of b******* right there.

Mike Johns

So, if you can afford names, multiple LED screens, HD cameras (which basically means an entire overhaul in your production equipment), live 3-hour PPVs every month, new title belts every three to six months, vanity belts for your top guys, glamor shots for the President of the company, plus the average cost of TV production, which, considering TNA's level and equipment, has got to be in the ballpark of $500,000 per episode, plus long-term contracts for talent, including the names... you'd THINK being able to pay your talent a living wage, on time, would be in the cards.

Plus, call me crazy, but unless the contract explicitly states otherwise, and it very well might, doesn't paying your talent late constitute a breach of contract? A breach that may cause people to, I don't know... sue you? Or, at the very least, jump ship somewhere else.

Oh, wait. There is no "somewhere else" at the national level. WWE won't hire you. You're too old/not a model/not famous enough/not married to someone less famous than a gospel singer, but is still considered a mainstream artist somehow/too southern/too small/not playboy material/Nigel McGuinness. Which means going back to the indies, where pay's never guaranteed, and you're working at least twice as hard for half the pay.

Markus Ramius

Me personally, i think the only thing keeping the company alive is their TV deal with Spike. If that ever fell through and they where droped from Spike i think we would see the end of TNA, i don't think even Dixie's pappy would see the profit in keeping the company a float and you know guys like Hogan, Bischoff and Flair would abandon ship in a heart beat if the show lost it's TV exposure given how big their ego's are.

I personally don't WANT TNA do disappear I used to watch WCW Nitro and Thunder every week just because i loved wrestling. But if TNA are not going to present a product that is a viable competition on a national/international scale then i think they need to cut their losses and just close the doors and let another company come in and try to make a go of it. People seem to like ROH (never seen it myself) but it makes me wonder what would happen if ROH got TNA's Spike deal.

Aaron Wood

TNA would be nowehre, quite literally, without the money of Panda Energy. TNA, since then at least, have never really had to scrimp and save every penny like a Ring Of Honor or JAPW has.

Mike Johns

Mike Johns' history lesson on the term "indy promotion

Kid Chameleon

Does TNA turn a profit?

            ZAH

            I think it depends on who you ask.
            The TNA front office would probably say "yes".
            Everybody else would probably say "no".
            I don't know either way, but my guess would be leaning towards "yes"...primarily     because of the international deals they've got in place and the tight TIGHT budget    they show in all aspects of their organization outside of their top performers.

                        Mike Johns

                     No offense intended, but this is a pretty irrelevant question if you're not getting paid on tiSeriously, think about it. You're an employee at your job. Payday comes, and you expect a check, right? So, when payday comes, and there's no check, then what?
Six weeks pass, you're still not getting that check. What are you doing then?

Six months pass. Still not getting paid. You really give a crap if the company you work for is profitable at this point? Or, are you just wondering why the hell you're not getting paid?
The fact there's ANY smoke around the "not getting paid on time" fire says bad things about companies finances. Profitable or not.

                                    T-Dog

                                    Considering Meltzer posted that the CFO of TNA is telling people                                          they're "bleeding money", I'd go with a no.

Kid Chameleon
The TNA business model seems to be working even if the product is rubbish because we (especially myself) will keep watching - although to be fair i live in the UK where we get the PPVs for free just 4 days after the event and i can't think of a main event that TNA could put on to make me want to buy one

I guess my point is love or hate it or both - if they're making money, nothing will change and we'll keep on watching

This Week in WWE Forum History

So this week there is going be some jumping around in time frame, topics, and sanity. So we'll start off on easily one of the most entertaining and longest running threads in the history of the WWI forums.

Ask Matt Dawgs April 27^th-May 3^rd 2007

Fireman718239
Why have most Yankee fans treated A-Rod like shit?

            Matt Dawgs

            Cause they aren't true yankee fans. They are casual yankee fans.

Squeaky

Who would you have marked out for coming out at the end of Raw last night to be Cena's mystery challanger?

Side Question: Do you think Kali was a smart choice/emotions aside who would you have choosen as a wrestling mind as opposed to a wrestling fan. Although maybe they are one in the same.

            Matt Dawgs

            A) Brock Lesnar
            B) Khali was a horrible choice because he isn't over as a monster enough and he is   no way going to have a good match with Cena.

Fireman718239

Do you think that Cena-Khali has the potential to be a disaster?
How much does it suck that Taker got hurt, so now we'll never get the Benoit vs Taker World Title dream match? and if you were booking would you book that same match for WM 24?

Do you think a program between Kane and Cena could draw?

            MattDawgs

            No, Cena vs Khali is going to be fine for what it is. They arent going to go 20 +         minutes. It will be a quick match with some weapons or a DQ finish or something.         Neither is doing a job.

            It sucks that Taker is hurt but i think the minute he is ready to come back, they         will put the strap back on him and give him his promised title reign. Possibly at Mania again. As for Benoit, it would have been cool and they can still do it down the road.

            No. Kane isn't and wont get over enough to draw money as a main eventer. He is an upper card guy but never a main eventer again. Too much damage has been done to his character,

Counting all of that up there Matt Dawg batted about a .400 that week. Which, when all is considered, isn't too shabby.

People try to be optimistic about TNA. Hell, the first half of what I've given you was from the hottest portion of our TNA section. But what about back in the day? We all reminisce about 'the good old days'. So what about TNA Impact on May 1^st, 2008? Let's find out when we Cross The Line, This is Wrestling, or whatever the hell that slogan back then was.

TNA Impact May 1^st 2008

JohnnyCraze

I think Cornette's new concept will be the first ever "lightning strikes a poll" match. Two wrestlers will be tied to two polls outside during a thunderstorm and each one tries to get away safely back into the impact zone(or wherever they are) before lightning strikes. Whoever gets back first without getting struck by lightning wins the match. If both wrestlers get struck then they must continue until one of them gets into the arena or one of them dies.

JT

It's time to CROSS THE LINE people!

*answers that question*

ThinkSoJoe

CONICHIWA! or however you spell it. GIMME A SHELL YEAH!

JohnnyCraze

Leave it to Big Steriod Pump to ruin a good match.
What the hell is Petey Williams doing? Why in the world would he want to do that to his face?

ThinkSoJoe

Somebody explain to me how ODB got over?

            JT

            Some questions have no answer.

T-Dog

Good God, Kevin Nash has the TNA World Title.
Sucks to see Kevin go from mentor to belt holder.

ThinkSoJoe

so who in TNA decided that it would be a good idea to have "EY" on the front of Super Eric's shirt and "SHOWTIME" on his backside, yet have him act like he never heard of Eric Young? He's not really doing a good job of hiding his identity.

JohnnyCraze

I must ask this question again....why is Kip James still employed?

ThinkSoJoe

I was going to say "no, that wouldn't make any sense..." but then again, this is TNA. Cross the Line - of making any f*cking sense!

JT

Steiner talking percentages. (smacks himself on head)

JohnnyCraze

Scott Steiner trying to do math.......

T-Dog

Steinernomics.

The logic is indebatable.

Yes. Four years ago we were still talking about TNA's lunacy, the horrible weekly show, and Scott Steiner teaching match on Impact .

And for our one final look back we travel to 2009. That magical time when that one hot angle was happening. That one wrestler was about to break through the glass ceiling. And that one dumb moment that would live forever happened.

Lance Hoyt (Seriously, remember him?) and other WWE news - 2009

Aaron Wood

Lance Hoyt is claiming that he's signed a WWE deal. Wouldn't surprise me if he has, since he has the size. Shame he's a cross between Kevin Nash and Test talent-wise...

                            Mike Johns

                        He was over in TNA because he stuck around after shows to hang out with the fans, and his                              name was, like super-chantable.
                        But mostly, the being cool and hanging out with fans part.
                        Sorry, but Hoyt's not that great in the ring, or else he'd have gotten a                          sustained push durring his hot period when the Impact zone chanted his                                name like a top 40 hit.

Average

I saw that on PWinsider and when I read the headline of "Former TNA star announces WWE deal" my first reaction was "Cool, Sonjay! nah, Petey! it's not Rave, surely it's not the guy with the tramp stamp." I was sadly mistaken, given the sizes of the recently released I should have known.

Clifffside

I once saw Hoyt hit a backflip off the top rope. That was pretty impressive.

I once saw Hoyt do a big boot. Those were good times.

Aaron Wood

And who could forget that time he did that other thing too... unforgettable!

Anthony.Analog

i once saw lance hoyt pull a quad on ra.... oh wait. that was kevin nash.
well... oh! i once saw lance hoyt go on a date with stepha... oh, no.... no... that was test.
uuuuuuummmm...
who the hell is lance hoyt?

SABUISGOD

He does have a very artistic tramp stamp. Maybe he can be a tag team duo with Santina? Instead of the rock and rave infection, they can be the Italian yeast infection?

RowdyRodimus

Swear to God, I once saw Lance Hoyt get off two punches in a row followed by a kick to a gut. In TNA that is considered chain wrestling skillz.

            Aliasyoshi

            In WWE that isn't allowed on the same card with any Cena match. Don't want to       threaten, ya know.

*The answer is: Yes, and I'd like to more often.*

Aaron Wood

I think Ziggler's biggest problem is his name. It's too porno, and thus dumb to really take him seriously. I mean, could you see "Your winner and NEW World Champion...Dolph Ziggler!"

So congratulations to Lance Hoyt for thread-jacking the entire WWE section during the end of April in 2009. It's easily the biggest impact he made in WWE until his departure.

Well gentlemen and…ladies? (Are there any reading this? Curiosity at this point.) Next week is the start of summer. And this week is the magical time known as "College Finals". So why not relax and make some new 'net friends on the WWI forums?

SQUEAKY

When me, Teabagger, and Dope all hang out, we do it CPC style all the way.   Big blingin' it at the Dave & Busters, drinking the finest boxed wine we can steal from a hobo, and mackin' it to the underage girls who don't know any better.   But it's not all fun and games.   We talk about work.   We talk about why Hot Threads hasn't taken its place at the apex of World Wrestling Insanity columns.   And we came to a uniform and group decision that I just might right now without asking either of them that this column needs more T & A (not the other kind).

So following rule #1 of internet writing (know your readers), here is our probably not reoccurring and who cares if they're fake, Moment of Misogyny!

Mike Johns:

Speaking of TheGreatWhiteDope (he's not a pedophile just my wingman), he's having the problem that all wrestling fans inevitably come across.   Finding one of the 20 other people in the country who will go see a show with them.

Seriously! Asking a non-wrestling fan to sit through an event is the equivalent of asking for a kidney, with the same rate of success!

TheGreatWhiteDope: I have 1 extra 2nd row ticket to ROH's Supercard of Honor VI in Chicago if anyone is interested. First come first serve, a buddy had to bail. Let me know.

(Squeaky Note: A day passes)

TheGreatWhiteDope: ....no one?

....seriously?

Squeaky: I don't live in Chicago or else I'd be all over that shit.

Mike Johns: An 11 hour drive back and forth for me. For SHIMMER, I'd consider it. For ROH... I can catch a show in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Dayton with a shorter drive.

Plus, we're currently swapping people out at work right now, so I won't know what my availability is going to be, as we still haven't been able to train someone new yet.

TheGreatWhiteDope: Your love of women's wrestling astonishes me.

Here in the Insanity Galaxy (I'M BRINGIN IT BACK!) we have a tendency to go off on tangents.   And it happened twice this week.   The first followed a spirited post about What WWE Does Right.

The Choosen 1: (click above for the full text) The truth is WWE usually does things that don't make any logical sense... at the time. Though we never acknowledge it, there have been very few moments over the past of couple years that seem as illogical some weeks or months later. Whether or not WWE has the story mapped out at the time, they are pretty good at figuring out something respectable as they go along. In the end, it's seems to me a pretty solid way of keeping EVERY type of fan interested in the on-air product... no matter how long we've watched.  

Honestly... I thank TNA for making me realize this. Never before has one company exposed to me how bad WWE could really be, or what truly illogical and ridiculous storyline decisions actually look like.

Drewcifer: Amen.

Mike Johns: People tell me how movies end all the time. But once I know how they end, I don't feel cheated out of anything, nor do I feel discouraged from watching that movie unless the ending sucks, in which, then, I'm glad it was spoiled so I didn't waste the money. Instead of going in wanting to know how it works out, I go in wanting to know how they got there.

So, I hear this argument - wrestling is too predictable. I wish there were more surprises. Stuff like that. Thing is, is it really because you know things will happen before they happen, or because the story that took you to that conclusion sucked balls?

What I'm getting at is - is it really the fact you know or don't know a conclusion that's ruining the story, or perhaps, the story itself is weak, making the end-result matter less?

xArsenicKissx: Ok, confession for you guys, I don't always 'watch' Raw, even when I am infact watching. Being in the UK its not so easy and realistic for me to watch the show live so I normally watch on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. I'll sit down with the show playing and reading the latest thread. I try not to skip ahead of the action, but invariably I will. Unless a massive spoiler is revealed, I'm never too bummed out when I find out whats about to go down. Yes, I love to be surprised ie Cenas return at the Rumble, but at the same time I like having a rough idea of the destination too and admiring the scenery on the way through. Take Kharma for example. Its pretty much a dead cert that she is going to come and destroy all the divas on a weekly basis, before setting up a conflict with (most probably) Beth Phoenix. I'm fine knowing that. What I look forward to is her motivations and the way she carries herself (even if I am kinda worried it will turn out she was bullied at school by the so called beautiful people for her looks and now karma has come to claim its revenge)

TheGreatWhiteDope: I personally understand both of these sides of arguments. The thing WWE should probably get credit for, most of the time, is that if they decide to go a different way for "the swerve" they find a reasonable ally to go afterward. They explain their actions / take the story in a reasonable direction to get it to the place they want in the finale.

Mike Johns: It's ultimately the quality in storytelling. WWE's not perfect, but miles ahead of TNA in that department. So, in that sense, we're all sort of right.

The Chosen 1: See here's the difference between my point and the point that's being made now... it's not about finding out what happens (as in a spoiler). What I'm saying is WWE rarely lets you FIGURE OUT What WILL happen before it ever does. There's a difference between "What John Cena returned at the Rumble? I'll still check that out" and "I KNOW John Cena will return at the Rumble, because I see this coming a mile away" before it ever even happens.

THAT's what WWE is usually very good at. Did that clear things up or no?

Mike Johns: if seeing it coming a mile away, so to speak, deters you from caring about it, it's a storytelling flaw. Which means the process is flawed, not the end result (in and of itself, at least).

But does "seeing things coming" in and of itself denote a storytelling flaw? No. Especially when you can sell shows based on the expectation fans have that X Will Most Definitely Happen.

My point is that "seeing X coming a mile away" is not always negative. It ultimately is how the story plays out. Sometimes, perhaps even moreso in wrestling, money is made off of giving fans what they expect to see at the end of the tunnel (babyface beats heel for title at WrestleMania, Rock/Cena fight, so and so wins the Rumble, Good guys beat bad guys, etc.). Swerving fans from an end result they want to see, just because it's downright obvious, isn't always a good thing.

Sure, you may KNOW that X is going to beat Y at Z Show, but many times, especially in wrestling, people are buying that show for the expressed purpose of seeing the obvious, coming from a mile off X beating Y at Z Show. You're not paying for a swerve or a surprise, you're paying to see X result and how they ultimately get there. You buy Mania to see Taker win. You buy Mania to see X good guy beat y bad guy. You buy Mania to see the Rumble Winner achieve his goals, and walk away disappointed when he doesn't.  

JG gave an example of how to save the Rumble in January, by letting Jey Uso get it. Problem is, Jey wins, everyone craps on it. WWE did one better, by giving you the momentary thought Santino could win it, just for Alberto to swoop in and take the spot many of us paid to see. The idea of a good story isn't to surprise people in the end, but to give them what they want after making them believe you're going to screw them.

At the end of the day, you still got what you saw coming. You still figured it out ahead, and saw it a mile away. Unpredictability doesn't always make for better stories. After all, if Santino or Jey Uso did win the Rumble, you'd know, for sure, they'd never get the title match anyway. All you did was throw an unnecessary side quest into what would have otherwise been a decent RPG.

Theman6201: I agree. The Michael Cole-Lawler storyline is a perfect example. Everyone expects Lawler to win in the end. Were they disappionted that he didn't win the title from Miz at Elimination Chamber? Yeah. But the storyline was Lawler-Cole, not Lawler-Miz. It was the storytelling that ultimately made that match a must-see. The crowd wanted to see Cole get his for all of his antics. They want to see him beaten. He was. Crowd goes home happy. Did we expect Cole to be an equal with Lawler? No, we expected Lawler to exact his revenge, which he did.

Same goes for what I think was one of the last successful long build-ups. Sting v Hogan in WCW. You knew Sting was winning that match. That's what people wanted. Someone to take down Hogan and the NWO. Did that lessen the match? No. People bought it for that reason. To see Sting take on Hogan.

In fact, most of the WWF booking in the 80s was designed to make you believe Hogan couldn't win, although deep down, you knew Hogan was going to win. That's what the crowd paid to see. A big boot, a leg drop and some poses.

TheGreatWhiteDope: Just like Steen/Generico. We all knew how it would end. Hell, I'm pretty sure most of us KNEW the move that would end the feud, which it did, but I think we all just loved to see it play out.

I go back to that big philosophy. Whatever started the feud, should be the thing that ends it. Not all the time....but in something like a tag break-up....totally.

The Chosen 1: I completely see you point MJ, many great movies end the way you had envisioned them ending one way or another.... but that's a whole different thing which I could go off on. Again, there's a difference between what's being said and what I am saying.  

My point is that imagine if every single match on a PPV we all went "this guy will win, this guy, this guy, this guy" down the entire card and every single match, which we all picked the same, all ending up having the outcome we picked, and that happened every month. Imagine how boring that would become after a while... and I know that's an extremely unlikely sounding scenario to create, but I make it because it's VERY rare that even half of a WWE PPV card is that predictable. It would be very easy for the storylines to be so obvious that we could look at each match and go "This HAS to happen because it's the only option"

So WWE deserves credit for never letting their product feel predictable.. WHILE at the same time never appearing like all they are doing is trying to shock us so we never get bored (IE: TNA). It's a fine line, but I think WWE does a good job of staying on the other side of that line.

Emphasized because this is where we made a right turn

Drewcifer: I knew Luke Skywalker was going to beat Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi. It still hasn't stopped me from watching the movie 6,000 times.

The Chosen 1: That's the BIG climax though... That's the WrestleMania where the good guy wins... The first time you watched did you KNOW Vader would be winning at the end of Empire Strikes Back? Did you figure out Vader was his father? Were you confused that Boba Fett just kinda died with no warning? Did you think Vader would be redeemed? Sure, you knew how the whole story would end, but the bigger moments along the way (the PPV's throughout the year, before the big climactic PPV) were still a mystery and no matter how many times you REwatch something, all you are doing is trying to relive the original time you watched.

JT: Boba Fett didn't die. He killed the creature and escaped. But it wasn't in the movie so you wouldn't know that.

ZAH: If only that were true....

RowdyRodimus: Oh, it was true, only he had cancer or something afterward and in another EU story, he and Han make peace (and Boba falls in love with Leia but won't do anything with her because it's against his code)

JT: This is the story in which he escapees the sarlac pit. I wouldn't lie about this:   http://www.amazon.com/Mandalorian-Armor-Star-Wars-Bounty/dp/0553578855/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303955023&sr=1-1

ZAH: If it didn't happen in the movies, it didn't happen.

Drewcifer: Hold that thought, Zah.

I know in Star Trek, only TV and movies are canon, and books are apocryphal. But is that actually the case with Star Wars?

I've read a lot of Star Wars novels, and I've always accepted them as canon.

wolfchild: Sorry, Both books, comics and (I think) video games are non-canon. Lucas said so... in his mind, only the movies and cartoon are canon.

Very sorry.  

But that's Lucas rule. In my mind, it's all canon until it's disproved.

TheGreatWhiteDope: Being as "The Old Republic" is fully based off of 10% developer creations and about 80% EU....I'd say it's all canon.

Markus Ramius:

And we kept talking about it for ANOTHER THREE DAYS! The Insanity Galaxy, proving stereotypes exist for a reason.

OUT OF CONTEXT COMMENT OF THE WEEK!

Drewcifer: Dammit! Looks like I'm spending another Sunday night constantly refreshing Aaron Wood.

This has been the OUT OF CONTEXT COMMENT OF THE WEEK!

Our second, "Wait where did this conversation go?" moment was while discussing the hateoraide that one member feels the WWE unfairly gets.

Kid Chameleon: Could someone tell me why so many wrestling fans rag on the WWE and Vince McMahon so much?

I would bet up to 90% of all wrestling fans got their first experience of wrestling through the WWE

Shit, i got into wrestling in the dark dark times between 1988-1992, and loved every minute of it.

Akeem, Polka Dot Dusty, The Bushwackers - loved them

Later on Doink, Adam Bomb, The Beverly Bros - not as much but it was still good

And today people have fantastic athletes putting on bettr matches on free tv every week but it's not good enough.

Also the Vince thing, i get it he's a total ego-maniac and ruthless with it (I wonder if that's how he's so rich?????)

But are there any other major corporation bosses in the world who would pay for there nearest competetors top guy to get well as Vince would do for TNA and Jeff Hardy

I know there are times when i get frustrated like to vent - but some guys just seem to be on here to hate everything

IT'S OK TO LIKE THE WWE

The Chosen 1: Some people need to rally against the commonly accepted way of thinking in order to feel good about themselves and have a purpose (like 9/11 Truthers)

Some people just watch the show and remember how they felt when they were kids watching and get mad at the WWE for not making them feel that way anymore, when really it has to do with the fact that many years have passed and you'll never get though child eyes back.

Some people get on the internet see that everyone on the internet hates the WWE and jumps on the bandwagon to be apart of it, whether consciously deciding that or not.

Some people just watch WWE and wish they were in control of the behind scenes-and on air product because they believe they could do a better job and come up with more interesting storylines (which sometimes is completely true btw... not every "Fantasy Booker" is an idiot.. some just can't or don't know how to or are too lazy to try to apply their ideas to a real life wrestling company)

Some people have mutated in such a way that they watch WWE simply to complain and hate on them, they've become so used to it and it has become so ingrained into their watching experience that even if the shows did everything they said they wanted to happen they'd still hate on it because that's how they enjoy the show.

And yet... some people just hate WWE because they hate WWE. The on-air product is always, always, always changing... to the point of becoming unrecognizable to the show that was on at the same time on the same network under the same name even 5 Years earlier.... so it's inevitable that if you liked the show during on time period after enough time has passed EVERYTHING you enjoyed about that show might now be dead, buried and non-existant.... as such, the people who enjoyed to 5 Years ago will watch now and believe they are still entitled to the show they were originally watching and want it to go back to the way it used to be.. when it never will.

---You can't blame them though. What other show is like that? If you watch LOST during the first season and then watch for 6 years.. at the end of the show, things may have evolved, an unbelievable amount of situations you could have never imagined during season 1 will happen, and characters will be far from what they were on day 1... but at the end of the day.. it's still LOST... the style and feel of the show is the same, you get a sense of what you're watching is the natural progression from day 1. In the WWE they might as well just have a series finale every 5 or 6 years and debut a new show in its place the next week because it would be the same show as before in name only. New writers, new direction, new top guys, new feel, new emphasis, new rules, new goals.... it's crazy.. so some people hate that, too

Mike Johns: I could point out the futility of complaining about people complaining, but I'm pretty sure doing so will change absolutely nothing.  

Some people just don't like shit. The End.

T-Dog: Or maybe some people just want a competently-booked wrestling program week in and week out? Most fans who get angry at WWE remember when it was like that and believe it can be done again, which isn't an unreasonable request.

Mike Johns: ^THIS^

Anthony.Analog: WOW. Just wow.

Verifiable FACTS regarding war games taking place the morning of 9/11

The Chosen 1: I can't tell if you are being sarcastic in this.... but I'm not going to get into this here, because I can go back and forth for days and days on end and hate with a passion that people can be stupid enough to believe the government DID it. So i'll just put three things out there and stop.

1) It's entirely plausible that people in charge may have known that a plan to attack America was being made, maybe even knowing the roundabout time when it was happening and didn't do enough or even (worst case scenario) anything to stop it, because hey either A: wanted a reason to go to war or B: didn't think it possible for such a plan to work...

2) But the thought that the US Government pulled off the single most amazing most well thought out intricate and fantastically pulled out conspiracy in the history of the world ever, EVER and 10 years have gone by with out one single persoon involved admitting that this is what happened in a world where anyone can leak any knowledge at anytime... and yet some how a few assholes with computers are able to poke the most "obvious" and ridiculous "holes" in the story is the dumbest and smallest mind bullshit that I have ever in my entire life heard. For every 1 piece of "proof" a truther has there are 100 pieces of logical proof that contradicts it.. HUGE parts of the "conspiracy" are proven to be false over time and then the con-theorists just go "Oh yeah! Well what about this? Ask another question... eventually that's answered logically and when every single stupid question they have is answered they go "Well are you really going to believe what the Gov't tells you?, sheep"  

3) WAKE UP IDIOTS! On September 11th, 2001... 20 Terrorists split up and hijacked 4 different planes at one time putting those in charge of those planes into a panic.... The terrorists on board lied to everyone they talked to and said they were going back to the airports to let the Gov't know their demands... ya know, the only way Hijackings and kidnappings have worked for 30 years..about 1 LITTLE HOUR later three of those four planes were used as missiles and crashed into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon... the forth plane which was delayed by nearly an hour had enough time to get a hold of what was happening in NYC & DC through loved ones over phones that were CONNECTED TO THEIR SEATS.... and stormed the cockpit, that terrorist than plunged the plane to the ground. TONS of airplane wreckage were found in both the hole in the pentagon and the field in PA. THE END. Everything that happened after was directly due to the plane impacts... the second plane that hit the WTC was about 1/4 of the way down the whole building which meant there was what amounted to a regular sized building (30+floors) above the impact zone. The raging fires weakened the steal enough over the course of 1 1/2 hours that the weight of the building above it couldn't be supported anymore and right at the impact it began to fall.. that's why the entire building above the impact remained intact at first.. and it DID NOT fall at the rate of gravity. It took about 10 more seconds than truthers say it took. The second WTC to fall had a higher impact and thus took nearly 2 hours for the same thing to happen to it.. WTC7's entire bottom of the building was scooped out by damage done to it by TWO 110 story building falling next to it. It stood for hours just barely before the side of the building which was being supported by scooped out part of the building began to crumble and fall only AFTER that part began to fall did the rest of the building begin to collapse. THE END AGAIN. NO FUCKING CONSPIRACY outside of the fact that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, The Gov't knew that something was being planned and didn't do enough to prevent it.

aliasyoshi: Because our government does everything right and has never done anything wrong, underhanded, secretive or the like. Ever. They are all sooooooooo great and awesome.

slimjames: Why hate WWE? Cuz 9/11 was an inside job.

...

Obviously.

To quote a great poet, "Just like a broken needle, kid, you missing the point."

Markus Ramius: oh and you're saying George Bush and is cronies are smart enough to pulls osmething like this off and no one in the world is going to leak the info? please use a little common sense, in the digital age of today and even 10 years ago what the conspiracy theorists propose about a cover up is impossible esspecially on a scale of this size.

the buildings where NOT imploded as people claim on the very fact that it takes up to 3 months to prep a building fora controled demo and in this case we are talking about2 buildings at 110 stories a piece, they would have to gut the building over probably 6 months and by removing ALL non essential walls and interior aspects... essentially strip the building down top to bottom and weaken the superstructure enough by drilling holes and placeing hundreds of tons of explosives throught the towers. you can not seriously tell me that 50,000 visitors a day would not notice something of that magnatude going on around them?

people can be so stupid when it comes to blind faith in rediculous conspiracy theories like this.

but on the topic of WWE, one of the reasons i love the show is because it is never the same from one year to the next... it's called evolution of the show. if WWE never changed it's stories or carachters or direction people would be bitching about that then saying that the show has not changed since the 90's... oh wait people could always watch TNA if they want to be stuck in the 90's.

TheGreatWhiteDope: I'll be the one to say this then:

The Sane Forum: News & Politics. Move this discussion there.

This right here is about why hate on WWE? Not "9/11"

I'm sorry...this doesn't belong here. Not saying it's not an interesting conversation, but move along.

As for WWE.....eh. I don't hate, I don't love. I love wrestling, and overall I enjoy WWE programming. Just....some stuff makes me cringe. Talking to people at work who were like "i watched Raw. So Michael Cole...." or "So Vickie Guerrero..." It is cringe-worthy. Happens. I just want a product that doesn't have, during some spans of time, weekly moments of "Geez, I hope my friends aren't watching this" reactions.

James Guttman: Thought about it, GWD. But ultimately decided not to move it because it's so batshit insane how we were able to turn a thread about liking WWE into a 9/11 Truth debate in literally one post. It was the second post. I was kind of impressed at the directions we veer off in.

Oh, who here hates Haley Reinhart on American Idol? I can't stand her.  

Also, Mountain Dew has a competition to determine the next flavor. I bought both the blue one and the pink one. Blue was a bit better in my opinion. Has anyone tried it? What do you think?

One more thing. I bought a used copy of Fallout:New Vegas from Gamestop. Inside was an old reciept from Blockbuster. The purchase was for a $2 Smarties Gumball Machine. The person bought $85 worth of them. That's 40 or so with tax. What the f*ck?

Carry on.

Drewcifer: STFU, noob!

The WWI Galaxy, where we can turn anything… INTO ANYTHING!

Finally, RAW saw a birthday celebration of the Rock.   I guess not everyone on the message boards was in such a festive mood…

JohnnyCraze: If Cena keeps the title until WM I'm going to shoot myself.

RowdyRodimus: Don't forget, it's our first post Bin Laden episode of RAW, and seeing as how the Rock knew he was dead before pretty much any other civilian, he'll mention that in his Birthday Bash 2- SmackDown Boogaloo.

Average: Does this mean Hassan and Davari are coming back? (HE'S HALF PSYCIC!)

JohnnyCraze: My name is the Rock and I am here because my movies suck.

RDLee: Wrong.

Fast Five = $80 million dollar opening weekend.  

The Chosen 1: BURST OUTTA THE WOMB! --- Ew disgusting... how's his mom?

wolfchild: So if the GM email's Cole on his ipad, why is the podium still set up?

Ravnos: Why does The Rock always seem to walk through a car wash on his way to the ring?

The Chosen 1: to be fair that KINDA looks like sweat... not like when Orton falls into a tub of lube every week

Aaron Wood: One quarter of the show over, and this essentially only achieved more than that terrible Wrestlemania promo by having Michael Cole beaten up. Other than that, it blew, and it took ONE QUARTER OF THE SHOW TO DO IT.

The Green Teabagger: Now THIS is the Truth I've wanted to see for a LONG time.

The Chosen 1: I've never noticed but Kelly Kelly has awesome eyes....

to bad its time for her to die

The Green Teabagger: I think this is the first time in Kelly Kelly's entire WWE career that she's managed to show an expression on her face other than emptiness.

Aaron Wood: First 45 minutes of this show has had a 25 minute promo, a shitty song & dance number, a match that never got started and a match that saw one move get hit before it was stopped. The fuck is this shit? Impact????

JT: Khali dressed as the tooth fairy is the scariest thin I've ever seen.

The Green Teabagger:

RowdyRodimus: Was I seeing that right and that belt is one of those Figures Inc. replica belts? It looked like it had their stamp on the back of the center medallion. Either way that was a bullshit ending since the ref only saw the belt with Riley and the Miz close to a minute after the bell rang.

JohnnyCraze: Hey look, it's Batist.....oh nevermind

wolfchild: VINCE!! OH god. He's gonna say Trump killed Osama.

Average: How did Rock get a clause in his contract that says "I get my ego jacked off in increasing fashion every time I appear on tv."?

JohnnyCraze: I love Rock and everything but this was wayyyyyy to much.

RowdyRodimus: No wonder the stock dividends went down, they used it to pay for the Rocks birthday

RDLee: God, it's shows like tonight that make me hate watching WWE these days. 5 matches, 2 no contests and 2 DQ.  

Oh well, at least the new Call of Duty Black Ops map pack comes out in the morning. YAY for Call of the Dead!!!!

Aaron Wood: Well, I disliked this show intensely.

RowdyRodimus: For this one night only (partially out of respect for his Grandma on her birthday and partially because he said what I thought about this show):

Drewcifer: I don't know. Maybe I'm just smoking the good stuff lately...

But I thought it was a great show. It's how I wished Wrestlemania would have finished.

I like Awesome Kharma's introduction to the show. I like how they gave the new RAW 5 a tag match. And I liked the Rock's party. (My birthday is also this week, and I felt like the party was also for me, including the Mae Young pie.)

I think the whole point of this show was to put The Rock over as  WWE's All-Time Greatest zomg. Only time will tell.  

I semi-marked.

Squeaky: Interesting show eh?

They certainly tried to be smooth celebrating patriotism without outwardly saying 'Yeah we're all super stoked that we killed someone.'

Very anti-climactic end to the show. Again, you have the opportunity to make a star, have someone do a run in on the Rock, but no. Just wasted opportunities.

T-Dog: This show sucked big fat donkey dick.

shooting: Overall the show was disappointing wrestling wise. The only match that ended clean was the tag team match even if the best match was the Cena Miz match. The party got old fast.

Mike Johns: Beyond the weird officiating in the Miz/Cena match, I actually had no major issue with the show... what I saw of it, at least.

You do have to think the ref should have restarted the match when he saw the belt in the ring, rather than reverse the decision. Just because the belt's there doesn't mean you can automatically draw the conclusion Miz used it on Cena if you didn't see the blow.

Squeaky: Speaking of over, and I think Wolfie alluded to this already, how bad must CM Punk feel that Mason Ryan is officially 'stronger' than him after one night on Raw than Punk has been in 5 years?

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK WWE!!