Okay, so tomorrow is the big WWE Taboo Tuesday pay-per-view, where fans can manipulate matches by voting. Sounds crooked to me. For those of you who have no godly idea what I’m talking about, allow me to offer some history behind this relatively new concept.
Last year, WWE had attempted a rather unique Pay-Per-View experiment… no, not the Tuesday PPV – THAT experiment had been done many years ago featuring a paltry rematch between Undertaker and Hulk Hogan. I’m talking about the interactive aspect of a show where fans have some control over what goes on in the match, either by choosing stipulations or choosing challengers to championships. Last year’s show seemed to be enough of a success that they’re trying it again this year. Now, to reiterate what I had said in the Taboo Tuesday 2004 ramblings, this wasn’t the greatest PPV I had seen, but it was something different and unique that broke the monotony of PPVs, all which seemed to booked in the same way.
Others might feel differently, but I thought that the Taboo Tuesday concept was a novel idea and shows that WWE are willing to take chances and try something different when they feel like it. Earlier this year, WWE suspended one of their regular PPVs and replaced it with an ECW one, a show that I can say was pretty entertaining. Not because the wrestling was any good, mind you, but mostly because it was a different offering from what we are commonly used to seeing from McWrestling.
Here we are: Taboo Tuesday 2005 is coming up in a few days and once again, we are given the power to vote. Now since I have night courses at school this year, I obviously won’t be able to update regularly on the blog. Instead, this’ll be a regular prediction sheet… I’ll put down what I’ve voted for, what I think would get the vote, and of course, who wins the frickin’ matches. So without further adieu, let’s get this thing done, shall we?
STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN VS. JONATHAN COACHMAN
My Pick: Street Fight
Predicted Pick: Street Fight
Predicted Winner: Steve Austin
The story goes like this: Perennial RAW announcer and Stone Cold pal Jim Ross gets fired by the McMahon family and Stone Cold is upset. What? I said he’s upset. So Stephanie pits Austin against Coach, where if Austin wins, JR gets his job back. If Coach wins, Austin’s fired. For sure, everyone wants to pick the frickin’ street fight, because it’s sure more entertaining than verbal debates and arm wrestling contests. And we all know Austin is going to take this one, because God Forbid that he would put over Coach.
CARLITO VS. MICK FOLEY
My Pick: Dude Love
Predicted Pick: Mankind
Predicted Winner: Mick Foley
Come on! The Dude gets no Love these day and it’s high time he got his spotlight one last time. I’m so frickin’ burnt out by Cactus Jack and Mankind that it’s so sad. Of course, I expect Mankind to emerge (either in the brown outfit or in a ragged shirt and tie) and I also expect Mankind to win the match, because any other way wouldn’t be cool.
CHEERLEADER BATTLE ROYAL
My Pick: Cheerleader
Predicted Pick: Leather and Lace
Predicted Winner: Who cares?
Next.
EDGE and CHRIS MASTERS VS. SMACKDOWN SUPERSTARS
My Pick: JBL
Predicted Pick: JBL and Matt Hardy
Predicted Winner: Smackdown
Don’t take it the wrong way, but I am actually starting to enjoy some of JBL’s work these days and that has me picking him for the shot. He’ll probably be sided with Matt Hardy (you vote for one guy – but the second highest will be the second man) and they’ll beat down Edgehead and Masteroid to build to the eventual RAW vs. Smackdown match at Survivor Series.
ROB CONWAY VS. EUGENE AND WWE LEGEND
My Pick: Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Predicted Pick: Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Predicted Winner: Rob Conway
For the sake of amusement, let’s side the retard with the “Hoooooo”-ing patriot and let’s have them lose to Conway.
TRIPLE H VS. RIC FLAIR
My Pick: Steel Cage
Predicted Pick: Steel Cage
Predicted Winner: HHH
Last year, a similar set of stipulations appeared and I chose submission over steel cage, but this year, I’ll pick out steel cage, since that’s the direction everyone’s going for anyway. Either way, I really don’t see Hunter losing this one because that’s the way the company works.
JOHN CENA VS. KURT ANGLE VS. ???
My Pick: Shawn Michaels
Predicted Pick: Kane
Predicted Winner: John Cena
My pick is Shawn Michaels because he’s the only good wrestler in the list, but bet on Kane to get in… that is, if he can – reports have it that he suffered a back injury and may not compete. Cena will probably retain because it’s highly unlikely they’ll change the world title on a relatively unimportant PPV.
I’m not mentioning the tag-team title bout because it has the champions facing the two guys who weren’t picked, but I don’t see the tag titles changing hands.
So that’s it then. Trick or Treat.
-o-
144 – A Mindf*** of a Taboo Tuesday
Topic: McWrestling
Earlier today, I had posted some of my votes and predictions for tomorrow’s WWE pay-per-view. That was all there was going to be and I would come back Wednesday and post the results. I come back from classes, go to insidepulse to check out what I missed on RAW and what do I get? The following crap:
– Steve Austin is gone from the card, apparently having changed to Dave Batista (a Smackdown guy and World champ) versus The Coach. Reason being that Austin doesn’t want to lose to Coach, which was in the script. Let’s not forget that Austin wasn’t signed to wrestle, he was signed to do movies for the film division. So nyah.
– Oh yeah, JR is still fired.
– Rob Conway is joined by Tyson Tomko and will face Eugene and a chosen legend.
– Torrie Wilson? Gone-o.
Some other stupid shit happens. Who cares? This is all sad. I leave for a few hours and the whole PPV falls apart? Amazing…
–Tuesday, 1 November 2005–
146 – Taboo Tuesday 2005 Results
Topic: PPV Predictions
I’m just posting the results here. Since I haven’t seen the show, I can’t comment on the matches. This’ll be merged with the earlier entry I made sometime in the future. A little guide to the numbers in brackets.
Pick: (Pick that I voted right – Pick I predicted correctly)
Winner: (Correct Prediction – Incorrect Prediction)
BATISTA VS. JONATHAN COACHMAN
My Pick: Street Fight
Predicted Pick: Street Fight
Pick: Street Fight (1 – 1)
Predicted Winner: Batista
Winner: Batista (1 – 0)
* Originally this was supposed to be Austin vs. Coach, but shit happens and it became Batista vs. Coach. Either case, I predicted Coach losing either way, so it’s irrelevant.
CARLITO VS. MICK FOLEY
My Pick: Dude Love
Predicted Pick: Mankind
Pick: Mankind (1 – 2)
Predicted Winner: Mick Foley
Winner: Mankind (2 – 0)
CHEERLEADER BATTLE ROYAL
My Pick: Cheerleader
Predicted Pick: Leather and Lace
Pick: Lingerie (1 – 2)
Predicted Winner: Who cares?
Winner: Trish, but really. Who cares? (3 – 0)
EDGE and CHRIS MASTERS VS. SMACKDOWN SUPERSTARS
My Pick: JBL
Predicted Pick: JBL and Matt Hardy
Pick: Matt Hardy and Rey Mysterio (1 – 3)
Predicted Winner: Smackdown
Winner: Smackdown (4 – 0)
ROB CONWAY VS. EUGENE AND WWE LEGEND
My Pick: Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Predicted Pick: Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Pick: Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka (1 – 3)
Predicted Winner: Rob Conway
Winner: Eugene & Superfly (4 – 1)
TRIPLE H VS. RIC FLAIR
My Pick: Steel Cage
Predicted Pick: Steel Cage
Pick: Steel Cage (2 – 4)
Predicted Winner: HHH
Winner: Ric Flair (4 – 2)
JOHN CENA VS. KURT ANGLE VS. ???
My Pick: Shawn Michaels
Predicted Pick: Kane
Picked: Shawn Michaels (3 – 4)
Predicted Winner: John Cena
Winner: John Cena (5 – 2)
And not that it matters, since I didn’t make any official claim, but Big Show and Kane are new Tag champs. I would have been wrong on this count, except it doesn’t count so HA!
How many of my picks went in: 3
How many predicted picks went in: 4
Final Prediction Tally: 5 – 2
Later.
–Wednesday, 2 November 2005–
147 – Some notes
Topic: McWrestling
Having read some wrestling-related news bits on message boards and stuff, I’d just like to post my two cents on some of the following subjects.
First off, kudos to Steve Austin for making the best decision of his wrestling career by walking out on WWE – again – instead of losing to Coach as originally scripted. I had previously blasted him years ago when he walked out on the company because he didn’t want to put over a then-rookie Brock Lesnar (although I had changed my feelings about that when his side of the story was told in a RAW Magazine issue months later), but this time, I’m not going to call him unprofessional. I’m going to call him a genius for not putting his stamp of approval on crap and for not sullying his legacy. The last thing Austin needs is to job to furniture, much less a scrawny suck-ass second-rate announcer. Nothing against the Coach, but he does nothing for me.
Of course, according to this snippet from Wrestlezone.com:
“The Torch reports that Steve Austin was not in a car accident over the weekend but did suffer a back injury while moving furniture. One source said that if Austin was pleased with the outcome of the match he may have taken a pain killer and worked anyways but that was obviously not the case. He is in a lot of pain though”
What a great way to end a career, huh? Austin Jobs to Furniture! Still, though, at least he dodged the bullet.
Second off, kudos to TNA Wrestling for scoring a Primetime special on Spike TV. Check the site for details and be sure to check out the show. If this does well, this could very well lead to an eventual Monday Night show.
Third off, Christian is not under contract anymore and well can do whatever he wants. So nyah there… why did I address this? I don’t know.
So let’s go back to my usual bashing mode. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to watch RAW anymore. It’s just getting so mind-boggling bad that it makes the absolute worst WCW shows seem like Wrestlemania in comparison. Smackdown is actually a better show, although the addition of midget wrestlers (I don’t care what they call them – they’re still midgets) is a trip back to the days when Vince was shooting out crap. It doesn’t help that I take evening courses and when I come home, I find Vince McMahon pulling stuff out of a rubber ass. I thought we stopped this shit back in the wretched Attitude era.
I’m just tired. Maybe tomorrow I’ll mellow out or something.
2010 Update: Oh, how things change in roughly five years – back then, I was praising TNA and accused WWE of being complacently boring. Now TNA is starting to suck by replicating WCW and WWE… well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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